Burrs and Chips, the Bane of Exsistance

[Gilhelmi]

From the beginning of endless time,
They have been with us.
Mocking us,
Betraying us,
Cutting us,
Taking our loved ones away.

Burrs are the material that is left on the edge of material after it has been cut. They grow worse as the tools wear. They are sharp and will cut you faster then a "your mother" joke in gangland.

Aluminum burrs are annoying, but easily removed, once you know how. Sandpaper and a scalpel will work 90% of the time. They might cut you on occasion if you disrespect the gremlins in the machine.

Steel burrs need stronger sandpaper and special blades, sometimes even a grinding wheel and steady hands. Sparks fly when a tool breaks, and we normally run steel in "Oil" machines (oil=flammable ). Steel burrs WILL cut you at least once per week.

Burrs on small (or thin) parts. There is no good way to deburr them on sandpaper and leave your finger nails and fingers intact. Latex gloves are too thin and will be worn through after 3-4 parts (even the thickest ones will only last 6 parts at best), and heavier gloves cause you to loose dexterity and grip...... You will sand your fingers until you BLEED. (usually takes 2 or 3 shifts for them to start)

Plastic burrs (and parts) are the worst though. They wont cut you, but they dont want to be removed either. Normal deburring methods will damage the parts so you have to be extra careful. Plastic also compresses, So you need to know the Exact amount of pressure to apply when measuring the parts, and where to apply it. Plastic is like that one 'friend' who annoys you, but wont leave. They might not cut your flesh but they WILL cut your Soul.

The there are the CHIPS oh chips, I loath ye. Chips is the material that is cut away from the part. normally 60-80% of the raw stock is cut away, but it can be up to 98%. Usually they are small and solid, and are easy to clean up. Others are loose and form a thread.

These "Thread Chips" are the root of all evil (the 'snake' in the Garden of Eden, it was really a tightly bound coil of thread chips ). They will get caught in anything that moves, like a conveyor, tooling, the spindle (on the lathe side). When the get caught they need to be removed. Removing them is like sticking your hand into a barrel of razor blades, you will be cut faster than sticking your hand into a barrel of razor blades!! I even have special gloves to pull them out, I stillget cut. I pull them out with pliers, (gently brush up against the threads) and I STILL get cut. If you look at them the wrong way, you Will still be cut!!! I looked down at my hand on time, I was bleeding, but did not remember being cut. They are so sharp, you will not feel getting cut until you notice the blood.

And this is why I get my Tetanus shots updated every 3 years now (normal people should get it every 10, but most do not). I dare you to read that Wiki article. You will be making a Doctors appointment within an hour (if you dont, you are crazier then I am. ).

[Seshat]

My solder-burned fingers type sympathetic words. (Also much needle-pricked from sewing and leatherwork, and knuckle-scraped from work on cars, and so much else.) Still, few of my injuries are job-related.


And yes, tetanus is one of the nastier illnesses out there.

[AccountingDrone]

7 years before the lathe, woman and girl [not joking, I started working in a machine shop at 15 sweeping and took machine tech in the afternoons at BOCES. Full time in the shop starting at 17.] I have one bad scar on the left hand where half my index finger almost got chopped off, and one on my right hand where the corner of a piece of sheet metal went through both sides of my glove and my hand in the middle, and I have alloy b bronze shards in my face and eye sockets from a catastrophic material fail. Thanks to safety glasses I have eyes ... [well there are also multitudes of other tiny scars from all sorts of crap, and my tattoo covers up a scar on my wrist that got graphite embedded in it and turned blue.] Did I mention my shop was between the ammonia department and the bleach platform ... I can exhale, close my eyes and walk 100 feet through a warehouse and get into a scott airpack at the end ... and I can get into and clear a standard gas mask in 15 seconds [though I tend to pull out hairs...]

[BPFH]

That would be why I'm very, very careful whenever I have to be out on the shop floor. (I'm a software developer these days, but the place I work at does mill and lathe work.) Well, that and all the lubricant that leaks from the machines...

[Gilhelmi]

Did I mention my shop was between the ammonia department and the bleach platform ... I can exhale, close my eyes and walk 100 feet through a warehouse and get into a scott airpack at the end ... and I can get into and clear a standard gas mask in 15 seconds [though I tend to pull out hairs...]

Why did they have those two facilities so close to one another? That sounds like, deadly, poor facility layout planning. I do not know the safe distance, but if they trained you on "How to escape Mustard Gas" then they were too close together.

I own a gas mask (I like to collect military/civilian model gear I admit, I also play with tear gas, but just for fun. I swear I am only "eccentric crazy", not "militant crazy"). But working there, I would have been able to write it off as a work expense (and get audited for having weird stuff on my forms, again ).

I get small cuts all the time. Only major injury, last year (that needed stitches), was when my Supervisor accidentally brushed up against a cutting tool, that almost hit bone.

[Gilhelmi]

That would be why I'm very, very careful whenever I have to be out on the shop floor. (I'm a software developer these days, but the place I work at does mill and lathe work.) Well, that and all the lubricant that leaks from the machines...

Lubricant is annoying. It makes a mess and goes everywhere. *insert sex pun here* Also, 9 times out of 10, if you slip and fall, it is your fault for not cleaning it up right away or using a mat (the 10th time, you slip while walking past another machine). We never have had it happen, because our managers get on us about it and strait up told us the '9 times out of 10' rule.

Chips might poke your eye out. Lubricant will burn them out.

On a side note, I volunteered to take a company sponsored CPR/First aid class. Some of the Senior management (and one VP) were there (they needed a night-shift person, only reason they offered it to me). They had videos and asked which ones we wanted to see (mostly for fun, watching the cheesy effects they had for the "treat person with a rod in the eye" video, with the company VP was a riot.).

Apparently, they were impressed that I asked to watch the video on "how to use the eye-wash station" (not as simple as you might think). +1 brownie point .

[BPFH]

Lubricant is annoying. It makes a mess and goes everywhere. *insert sex pun here* Also, 9 times out of 10, if you slip and fall, it is your fault for not cleaning it up right away or using a mat (the 10th time, you slip while walking past another machine). We never have had it happen, because our managers get on us about it and strait up told us the '9 times out of 10' rule.

It does go everywhere. One of the machinists pointed out the lubricant dripping from the ceiling when I was in the shop last week.

We've got one of those large floor-cleaning machines, that takes a run around the shop floor at least once a day. I'm still downright paranoid about walking back there.

Chips might poke your eye out. Lubricant will burn them out.

That doesn't surprise me in the least.

I know what the stuff does, long-term, when it gets sucked into computers. My last unscheduled weekend callout was to deal with the aftereffects of lubricant getting sucked in by the intake fans for server #1. It was downright disgusting in there, and the server was toast. Fortunately, server #2 wasn't fried, and we now have a nice, sealed, climate controlled server rack box, containing servers #3 and #4.

[AccountingDrone]

Why did they have those two facilities so close to one another? That sounds like, deadly, poor facility layout planning. I do not know the safe distance, but if they trained you on "How to escape Mustard Gas" then they were too close together.

I own a gas mask (I like to collect military/civilian model gear I admit, I also play with tear gas, but just for fun. I swear I am only "eccentric crazy", not "militant crazy"). But working there, I would have been able to write it off as a work expense (and get audited for having weird stuff on my forms, again ).

I get small cuts all the time. Only major injury, last year (that needed stitches), was when my Supervisor accidentally brushed up against a cutting tool, that almost hit bone.

Been phosgened twice, both times offsite .... <The first time I got a hazmat call that is unbelievable .... Camp/Fort Drum sold off land to local farmers, some areas of which had various sized cylinders of phosgene gas which occasionally would pop up with frost heave. Just as I was bending over to put an emergency bonnet over the valve end for transport, the farmer casually mentioned he heard it hissing, so he "drifted it shut with a hammer" just as it decided to spring a leak. *sigh* 3 weeks, and several occasions of getting my lungs flushed and peeling off segments of skin I was let go home again. Just to more or less have it happen again about 3 years later. Though at least that was only a #120 cylinder instead of a ton cylinder. Thankfully both cylinders were effectively empty and I barely got dregged instead of having a leak that would spread over several thousand acres.>

Actually I do happen to own both a gas mask and a scott air pack =) And I haven't worked hazmat or as an inside outside mechanic since 1989 [Well I also own my own parachute as well, and I haven't use it in years either.]

Um, because my shop also remachined valves used in both the ammonia fill shop, and the chlorine fill shop which was on the other side of the bleach production platform, all of which had to be in a line along the railroad tracks the raw materials were brought in upon. The place sort of grew over some 50 or so years as product lines got added. [Actually neat fact - the company also worked on developing the instant fog bank bombs for the US Navy back in WW2 .... the kids of the original owner swiped one of the bombs in development and dropped it in a local river, enfogging the area for most of a day]

[Gilhelmi]

Um, because my shop also remachined valves used in both the ammonia fill shop, and the chlorine fill shop which was on the other side of the bleach production platform, all of which had to be in a line along the railroad tracks the raw materials were brought in upon. The place sort of grew over some 50 or so years as product lines got added.

That makes more sense. Especially with a company growing over 50 years, that would limit your space to grow.

[Actually neat fact - the company also worked on developing the instant fog bank bombs for the US Navy back in WW2 .... the kids of the original owner swiped one of the bombs in development and dropped it in a local river, enfogging the area for most of a day]

I swear, kids in those days were awesome.

[Thana]

Suddenly the pressure fryer at work doesn't seem as scary anymore. Nor does it seem like having having hot fries escaping the carton, hot chili, molten lava (cheese sauce) or hot water are things to be afraid of coming in contact with.

[Seshat]

Sugar.

The only good part about a sugar burn is that the sugar washes off with water. The bad part is that because it's "only sugar", far too many people don't treat molten sugar as a risky substance.

Next time you're looking at a sweets thermometer, look at the temperatures each stage of sweets cooking goes to.

[Gilhelmi]

Sugar is used in Explosives.

Anything that you have to heat up should be treated with respect. My mother actually taught us how to make candy when I was in Cub Scouts (6-10 year olds). Molten sugar is fun (and dangerous).

[Seshat]

My mother taught us as many types of cooking as she could; including deep respect for hot anything and sharp anything.
My father taught us to be handy with a wide variety of tools and equipment, and gave us both the confidence that we could learn to use anything he didn't have the facilities to demonstrate/teach (which was a lot - we were 'poor working class' fiscally).

Both taught both kids (one girl - me, one boy) equally. And both were near-fanatical about safe handling of tools, equipment, heat, cold, and anything with a Ph far enough from 7 to be risky.

As a result, while we both have scars, neither of us kids has lost any body parts from injury or accident. (Sadly, we've both lost functionality due to sickness, but that's bad genes and not anything our parents could have foreseen - not in 1969 and 1971.)

I strongly believe that anyone with (un)common sense, and average-or-higher dexterity, reflexes and eye/hand coordination can learn to safely use the tools designed for the home user and the small industrial workshop.
Specialist equipment - like some of the stuff Gilhelmi and Necessary Catharsis use - may well require extra brains, dexterity, strength, or some such. But the basic gear just takes concentration and respect for the dangers.

(Sadly, I no longer consider myself to have average-or-higher dexterity, reflexes, or eye/hand coordination. Poot. But I can teach!)

[Gilhelmi]

Specialist equipment - like some of the stuff Gilhelmi and Necessary Catharsis use - may well require extra brains, dexterity, strength, or some such. But the basic gear just takes concentration and respect for the dangers.

Ha, not really. Safety glasses, Do Not Stick Hand Near moving parts, and keep your area clean.

For me anyway, Catharsis job might have needed a bit more training (mustard gas training, is unusual. I am glad that they thought to train people for it though. A Walmart near me had a 'gas scare' when some idiot did that, sent a couple people to the hospital.).

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Mostly what Gilhelmi said.

The mustard gas training was accidental, one of those, 'I thought you all knew this already' because we keep significant quantities of ammonium hydroxide on hand, and of course we have standard cleaning products available.

3/4 of my job I could train a monkey to do - it feels like I've tried sometimes - and most of the hardest part of the rest can be taken care of by someone who's capable of climbing ladders, scaffolds and walking on roofs and in attics without falling down. There's only a small portion that requires real knowledge and experience, and the things that can go all 'splodey or spontaneously combust are tightly controlled by the few employees who have serious training and certificates.

The biggest thing I can't deal with is people who are claustrophobic. People who are afraid of heights freeze, you can deal with them. People who are claustrophobic flail and kick and won't listen to instructions. They can be hard to get them out of a tight spot, and I've had two scares where I was genuinely concerned about the safety of a new co-worker. Someone without great fear of heights, without claustrophobia and with at least average co-ordination and common sense can do at least 95% of my job with only a few weeks training.